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Mike Trout joined the Angels for their first full-squad workout Wednesday with two clear goals for 2015: cut down his strikeouts and increase his stolen bases. The center fielder was a unanimous choice for American League most valuable player last season, batting .287 with 36 home runs, 111 runs batted in and 115 runs. But he led the league with 184 strikeouts and had only 16 stolen bases after swiping 82 the previous two seasons. “Plain and simple, I was chasing the high pitch. Everybody knows that,” Trout said. “The majority of time, they’re balls, and I was chasing them.” Trout, 23, plans to adjust some of his work in the batting cage this spring, but he...

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Mike Trout joined the Angels for their first full-squad workout Wednesday with two clear goals for 2015: cut down his strikeouts and increase his stolen bases.
The center fielder was a unanimous choice for American League most valuable player last...

The Boston Red Sox made a big off-season signing when they acquired third baseman Pablo Sandoval from the San Francisco Giants. However, it seems some Red Sox fans and pundits were in the dark as to just how big of a signing it was.
Sandoval was...

Angels bench coach Dino Ebel and former major leaguer Mike Sweeney will be among the instructors at a baseball clinic this Sunday at the Iron Spikes Training facility in Upland.
Milwaukee Brewers minor leaguer Jordan Swaydan, former St. Louis Cardinals...

Hmmm, are things getting interesting enough for the Dodgers to take a serious run at right-hander James Shields?
Certainly looks like it. In which case, they absolutely should.
Shields never appealed to me as the great ace he was being marketed as early...

David Price reached a $19.75-million, one-year deal with the Detroit Tigers, avoiding arbitration. His contract is the largest one-year deal for a player who filed for arbitration, topping Max Scherzer’s $15,525,000 agreement with the Tigers last year.
...

The American League champion Kansas City Royals and Ned Yost have agreed on a one-year contract extension that will keep the manager with the franchise through the 2016 season.
Yost said after leading the Royals to an improbable pennant last season...

Less than five months after acquiring Yoenis Cespedes as part of a big deadline deal, the Boston Red Sox traded the slugging outfielder to help bolster their rotation.
The Detroit Tigers were happy to take him.
Boston sent Cespedes to the Tigers on...

The Angels acquired Matt Joyce from the Tampa Bay Rays for veteran reliever Kevin Jepsen on Tuesday, a trade that gives them a primary designated hitter, a left-handed bat to balance a predominantly right-handed lineup, some corner outfield depth and a...

The revamping Oakland Athletics made yet another trade of a star player this off-season, sending catcher Derek Norris and minor league right-hander Seth Streich to the San Diego Padres on Thursday night for righties Jesse Hahn and R.J. Alvarez along...

The Dodgers are close to signing right-hander Chin-hui Tsao, who has not played professional baseball since the Taiwanese league expelled him five years ago amid allegations of game-fixing.
The Dodgers are expected to sign Tsao to a minor league...

Major League Baseball, 2014 in review:
The highs
• Clayton Kershaw was king of baseball in 2014 — National League most valuable player, Cy Young Award winner, pitched a no-hitter*, hit a score-tying triple, fielded a ground ball behind his back,...

The Dodgers are expected to finalize the signing of Taiwanese pitcher Chin-hui Tsao to a minor league contract any day now, with Major League Baseball blessing the deal over the objection of Taiwan's top professional league.
That league, the Chinese...

When Torii Hunter first came up to the major leagues in 1997, Paul Molitor was bringing a Hall of Fame playing career to a close with his hometown Minnesota Twins.
Molitor could still swing the bat, and the impression he made on a talented group of...

Kevin Cash is the new manager of the Tampa Bay Rays.
The team announced the former Cleveland Indians bullpen coach as Joe Maddon's replacement on Friday, selecting him over ex-Seattle Mariners manager and current Kansas City Royals bench coach Don...

Hundreds of front-office executives, managers, coaches and scouts will descend upon San Diego this week for Major League Baseball's annual winter meetings, all with the singular purpose of molding their teams into World Series contenders.
But what does a...

To many Angels fans, General Manager Jerry Dipoto is like the boy who cried wolf. Whatever Dipoto says, especially this time of year, they tend to believe the opposite.
Asked about free-agent Albert Pujols in November of 2011, Dipoto said the slugger was...

As the first day of baseball's winter meetings came to a close Monday night, Jon Lester was believed to be close to deciding where he'll pitch next season. At first glance, the Dodgers looked like one of his most logical destinations.
The Dodgers are...

Two years into a five-year, $125-million deal with the Angels, outfielder Josh Hamilton, who won the 2010 American League most-valuable-player award with the Texas Rangers, is looking like a major bust.
Hamilton’s batting average hovered around the...

On a July afternoon five years ago, the possibility of Mike Trout became quite apparent to the Angels manager.
Before Trout's $144.5-million contract, before the custom Nike cleats bearing the colors of a rainbow trout that he wore in the All-Star game...